Instant Webmasters: Web Portfolios Enhance Digital Literacy
Presenter: Kristin Koptiuch
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University
Note: Jimdo now works with iPad and iPhone!
SETTING THE CONTEXT (10-15 minutes): This workshop demonstrates how quickly and easily teachers at all levels can integrate digital literacy into their instructional pedagogy by turning their students into “instant webmasters” of their own creative and informative web portfolios.
For over ten years I have used web portfolios in undergraduate courses at Arizona State University. Having used many different web design programs, I have found that jimdo.com offers the easiest and most flexible program to get students up and running in literally no time. Jimdo’s tutorial is about one minute long—an accurate reflection of how quickly students learn to develop their own sites. I generally get an entire class full of students (even those with tech anxiety) to become full-fledged webmasters within an hour or less.
Participants in this Hot Topic session will quickly create their own web portfolios designed to integrate information, resources, links, reflections, activities and practice projects learned throughout the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. This active learning opportunity will model how easily participants can incorporate digital literacy into their own pedagogy, and when linked to the session’s website, will serve as a portal for engaging other instructors and students in this dynamic learning experience. NOTE: Institute participants who are not able to join this Hot Topics session may want to follow the Web Portfolios Guide sheet below to create a site for reflections on the Institute. Please send your URL to koptiuch@asu.edu to have your site linked to the session website.
What is a Web Portfolio?
In essence, a web portfolio is a digital documentation of a student’s coursework creatively presented in digital media format.
Takes traditional hard-copy portfolios "to the next level"
Compiles a selection of a student’s course assignments that tell the story their developing knowledge, communicative skills, and analytical abilities
Makes an exciting platform for a student’s individual research project
A tangible instructional product that adds an exciting dimension to student learning
Meaningfully integrates technology skills into subject-matter learning
Serves as an effective learning assessment tool for both student and instructor
Allows for individual contributions combined with the synergistic power of collaborative results
Why Web Portfolios? Creating web portfolios inspires students to do their very best work, and the satisfying results enable them to appraise and appreciate their own, and each other’s, accomplishments.
Promote digital literacy by giving students responsibility for effectively communicating to a broad audience their ideas, understandings, original research, and creative projects.
Launch student ideas to a worldwide web audience beyond the classroom
Prompts students to become conscious of writing for an audience beyond the instructor, and to work diligently to convey their own unique voice.
Instill the excitement of student participation as contributors to research-based knowledge about their local/global communities.
Allow for individual creativity and standardized assignment expectations to facilitate assessment.
Students’ papers and projects don’t “die” as when they’re submitted solely to the teacher.
As avid Internet users, students are well aware of the potential impact they can make by conveying their knowledge and creativity through the Internet.
Motivate students to take greater responsibility for the quality of their writing—unmatched by other incentives, including grades!
Student webmasters take tremendous pride in their web portfolios, which they enjoy sharing with family, friends, and indeed the wide world of Internet users.
What is Jimdo?
The easiest, most intuitive, flexible, and free website creator that I have found to date.
Jimdo’s mission: Pages to the People, “Jimdo puts the power of website creation in the hands of ordinary people.”
Easily integrates text, images, videos, web links, Google maps, social media widgets, etc. to enable students to hone their skills in visual literacy.
Enables swift integration of digital literacy technology into content-based courses.
Started in 2007 by young entrepreneurs in Germany, Jimdo now has over 8 million websites and offers user support in 12 languages. Headquartered in Hamburg, with offices in San Francisco, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
The Rub? Taken together, the synergies of web portfolios yield a whole picture that reverberates beyond any single student’s achievement, turning individual student-centered learning into a collaborative class learning experience expressed in exciting, sharable digital format.
DISCUSS AND SHARE (15 minutes):
How might you integrate web portfolios into your teaching?
What do you think is the proper time balance between subject-matter content and time spent on learning digital literacy tools?
How does writing for an audience beyond the instructor, beyond the classroom, transform the quality of student writing?
What challenges do you anticipate facing if incorporating web portfolios into your pedagogy?
Semester at Sea - Fall 2006: Web portfolios about travels to Mexico, Japan, China/Hong Kong, Vietnam, Burma/Myanmar, India, Egypt, Turkey, Croatia, Spain (created with Mozilla)
Learning From South Phoenix: Exploring the Changing Urban Culture & Social Space in South Phoenix ("oldstyle" websites created with FrontPage)
HOT TOPICS FOR LEARNING
Presenter: Kristin Koptiuch
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University
Note: Jimdo now works with iPad and iPhone!
SETTING THE CONTEXT (10-15 minutes):
This workshop demonstrates how quickly and easily teachers at all levels can integrate digital literacy into their instructional pedagogy by turning their students into “instant webmasters” of their own creative and informative web portfolios.
For over ten years I have used web portfolios in undergraduate courses at Arizona State University. Having used many different web design programs, I have found that jimdo.com offers the easiest and most flexible program to get students up and running in literally no time. Jimdo’s tutorial is about one minute long—an accurate reflection of how quickly students learn to develop their own sites. I generally get an entire class full of students (even those with tech anxiety) to become full-fledged webmasters within an hour or less.
Participants in this Hot Topic session will quickly create their own web portfolios designed to integrate information, resources, links, reflections, activities and practice projects learned throughout the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. This active learning opportunity will model how easily participants can incorporate digital literacy into their own pedagogy, and when linked to the session’s website, will serve as a portal for engaging other instructors and students in this dynamic learning experience.
NOTE: Institute participants who are not able to join this Hot Topics session may want to follow the Web Portfolios Guide sheet below to create a site for reflections on the Institute. Please send your URL to koptiuch@asu.edu to have your site linked to the session website.
What is a Web Portfolio?
In essence, a web portfolio is a digital documentation of a student’s coursework creatively presented in digital media format.Creating web portfolios inspires students to do their very best work, and the satisfying results enable them to appraise and appreciate their own, and each other’s, accomplishments.
What is Jimdo?
The easiest, most intuitive, flexible, and free website creator that I have found to date.
One-minute tutorial—it’s really all students need to get up and running!
Jimdo’s mission: Pages to the People, “Jimdo puts the power of website creation in the hands of ordinary people.”
Easily integrates text, images, videos, web links, Google maps, social media widgets, etc. to enable students to hone their skills in visual literacy.
Enables swift integration of digital literacy technology into content-based courses.
Started in 2007 by young entrepreneurs in Germany, Jimdo now has over 8 million websites and offers user support in 12 languages. Headquartered in Hamburg, with offices in San Francisco, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
The Rub?
Taken together, the synergies of web portfolios yield a whole picture that reverberates beyond any single student’s achievement, turning individual student-centered learning into a collaborative class learning experience expressed in exciting, sharable digital format.
DISCUSS AND SHARE (15 minutes):
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: